October 2011
The Archives
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10.24.11Timmy Time HD skips onto iPad (with Josie Lawrence in tow)Timmy! It's Timmy! He's a little lamb with a lot to etc etc etc. I love Timmy Time, even if my sons have moved on to other CBeebies shows since his last series. The animated spin-off from Shaun the Sheep has bags of character. Now it has an iPad app too. Timmy Time HD went live today, and costs £2.99 on the App Store. Promising "stories and fun", it's a book-app with two tales read by actress and comedian Josie Lawrence, with some playful interactive extras. They include a virtual keyboard to play where every key triggers a different baa - this ...
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10.23.11BigLittleBrother iPad book-app could help with sibling rivalryTwo of us run Apps Playground, and we were both older siblings in our respective families. That means we're well aware of the joys and annoyances of having a younger brother (me) or sister (Alice) in childhood. New iPad book-app BigLittleBrother puts them into an interactive form. Released by Minnesota Historical Society Press, it's aimed at 3-7 year-olds, and is the work of author Kevin Kling and illustrator Chris Monroe. The main character's experience is summarised thus on the App Store: "The narrator of Big Little Brother wants nothing more than to escape his brother’s sticky fingers. Then an encounter at the ...
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10.23.11Crayola Paint & Create iPad app makes colourful debutA few months ago, gadget firm Griffin Technology released an iPad app called Crayola ColorStudio HD, based on the famous crayon brand. It was partnered by a stylus accessory shaped like a big crayon, designed for scribbling on the iPad screen. Crayola Paint & Create is the second app designed to work with that accessory, with more than 40 games, puzzles, mazes, dot-to-dots, and colour-by-number drawings to complete using virtual pencils, crayons, marker pens and paintbrushes. While the games and activities all guide your child to their goal, there's also the option to simply scrawl on a blank sheet of virtual paper. ...
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10.23.11DK My First Word Play App is live for iPhone and iPadDorling Kindersley's 'My First' books are very popular with toddlers and parents alike - the latter have bought more than 15 million of them, apparently. Now a new app brings the series to iPhone and iPad in interactive form. DK My First Word Play App is aimed squarely at pre-school kids learning their first words, using a collection of mini-games to make the process fun and engaging. The Universal app costs £2.49, and includes four games. Letter Match is about matching pairs of images and words. Phonic Fun involves dragging letters into words, while Rhyme Time gets children completing rhymes by putting ...
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10.17.11Kids Canvas gets artistic (and pixelly) on iPadThe lead screenshot for iPad app Kids Canvas made me sit up and cheer, being a distinctly Mario-esque mushroom recreated in what look like little coloured polos. The other shots have just as much charm. It's an art-app for children by Swedish developer Epicore that just came out, costing £1.49 on the App Store. The idea: to create artworks with virtual beads, sweets, sewing stitches, mosaic tiles, crayons and splashes of paint, with animated modes thrown in for good measure. The pictures can be sent by email, and if the other person has Kids Canvas on their iPad too, they'll be able ...
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10.17.11Toddler wonders why magazine isn’t an iPadThis video has been doing the rounds of the apps industry for a couple of days, but just in case you haven't seen it... It's a video of a one-year-old, clearly flummoxed by the fact that print magazine pages aren't touchscreens that let you move things around. Funny, and cute. But also a sign of the times (and a reason why so many companies are making apps aimed at children to cater to the demand).
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10.17.11Toy Music will play a fine tune on your iPhoneNew iPhone app Toy Music looks simple, but - as for many of the apps that catch our attention here on Apps Playground - it has a layer of visual character and polish that make it stand out. So, this free iPhone app from KIDP offers a choice of four virtual instruments for your child to play: a tambourine, a triangle, castanets and maracas. The tambourine and maracas are played by shaking the iPhone: cue nervous parents if your kids are 'enthusiastic' shakers. The developer says more instruments will be added soon: we wonder if they'll charge for those using in-app payment, ...
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10.17.11Casper the ghost gets a Scare School on iPhone/iPadDeveloper Mindshapes has launched its latest iPhone and iPad app, and it features a well-loved character: Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper Scare School - Costume Closet costs £1.99 as a Universal app, and focuses on Halloween-themed dressing up. Your child has to dress Casper and chums in a variety of outfits, from werewolves and witches through to Frankenstein and... well, they're not all spooky: there's princess, fairy, knight, astronaut and pirate kit too. This isn't just for fun: the app aims to help your kids with their memory skills, figuring out which item goes with which outfit. There are also simple social ...
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10.13.11Go Away, Big Green Monster gets an iPhone appEd Emberley's Go Away, Big Green Monster! sounds like a marvellous book, with overlapping pages to help young readers make the titular monster disappear as they read. Now there's an app for that. Developed by Night & Day Studios - they recently did the Very Hungry Caterpillar game - it follows the same pattern. Each virtual page that you turn either reveals an element of the monster, or removes it. Meanwhile, there's a choice of voice narration - Emberley himself or a "funny 4 year old" - and also a Sing Along Mode with music and animation. Plus you can read by ...
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10.13.11One Stormy Night book-app swishes onto iPadCats and storms. Not a great combination, in my experience. Yet that's exactly what you'll find in iPad book-app One Stormy Night, although these cats thankfully aren't just shivering in the back of a wardrobe like mine do. The app is the work of Skyreader, costs £1.99, and is based on a print book of the same name. There's lots of rhyming, as well as voice narration and sound effects, and a bit of animation too. There's plenty of competition on the App Store, but something about One Stormy Night's artwork style grabbed my attention. You don't get the interactive bells and ...
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